After Andy Murray’s impressive semifinal win over Novak Djokovic on Friday, John McEnroe told the Scot he would be rooting for him in the final.

The great Johnny Mac certainly wasn’t alone today. Almost everyone at Wimbledon -- and throughout the country -- was rooting for him.

Sometimes wishes do come true.

This Olympics ultimately will be remembered as the turning point for Murray.

Four years after reaching his first major final, Murray has stepped it up. He isn’t playing Br’er Patch tennis anymore. He isn’t trying to put the whammy on his opponents. He’s cracking the ball. It isn’t easy to knock it past Roger Federer, but he showed he can do it. Time and again today he stepped into Federer’s second serve and sent the Swiss reeling. 6-2, 6-1, 6-4? When do you ever see a scoreline like that in which Federer’s on the losing end -- on grass?

What makes Murray's gold-medal performance all the more amazing is that this has been the summer of redemption for Federer. After his inexplicable, match-point-choking collapse to Djokovic at the U.S. Open, followed by his desultory loss to Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, even the most ardent Federer fans -- hand raised here -- were beginning to believe he was done winning big titles. Instead, he put on an astonishing display this spring and summer, getting a measure of revenge against Nadal at Indian Wells, conquering the evil blue clay at Madrid and then, to top it off, donning Superman’s cape to win his seventh Wimbledon title. He proved that at nearly 31 years of age he can still beat the best of the best in their mid-twenties primes (see his back-to-back wins over Djokovic and Murray at Wimbledon) and that, when necessary, he can win big matches simply by being a greater physical specimen than younger, bigger opponents (see his Olympic semifinal win over Juan Martin del Potro). For all but the die-hard Rod Laver partisans, he has slammed the door on the greatest-player-ever debate.

Now Murray just made Federer look old -- and not a moment too soon. The 25-year-old Scot has been carrying the best-player-without-a-major label like a scarlet letter. But he didn’t sink into a funk after losing the Wimbledon final to Federer a few weeks ago, his fourth loss in a major final. He laced his shoes a little tighter and got right back out there. Because he knows he’s improving. He knows he’s finally gaining on the Big Three. Serious tennis people have been saying for years that Andy Murray is just too damn good to not win a major. At the next U.S. Open or Australian Open, he’s going to prove them right.

He finally has that last ingredient -- confidence. If you have a propensity for self-hatred, tennis is not the sport for you. That has been Murray's problem. But there was no sign of the self-immolating Scot today. This was Lord Murray, as he'll no doubt officially be called one day.

So Murray is ascendant. And Federer, despite his failure to win gold, is still the number-one player in the world.

Where does this leave Djokovic? It’s hard to believe that two months ago the Serb was on top of the world. He had won three straight major titles, an astonishing run that included coming out on top in instant classics against his two rivals (Federer at the U.S. Open, Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open).

Now the pressure’s on. He couldn’t complete a career Grand Slam in Paris and he couldn’t defend his title at Wimbledon -- and in each his rivals got back at him (Nadal at Roland Garros, Federer at Wimby). The straight-set loss to Murray on Friday was the worst yet. In small, newly independent (or re-independent) countries looking to burnish their international reps, Olympic gold means everything. More than Wimbledon, more than the Tour de France. It would mean more than the World Cup if FIFA let the best players go to the Games. Yet Djokovic walks away from this Olympics with nothing (he lost the bronze-medal match against Juan Martin del Potro). Best player in the world? Djokovic is huge in his home country, bigger than huge. But the average Serbian -- i.e., a Serbian who is not a hardcore tennis fan -- must suddenly have his doubts.

This much we have learned in the past week: there are now five majors. Prestige came slowly for Olympic tennis after it returned in 1988. Four years ago in Beijing we saw that it was coming on hard. All the best players were in attendance, and they all admitted that the Games meant a lot to them. For the first time, the number-one player in the world -- Nadal -- won gold. This year Olympic tennis reached Slam status -- or at the very least Masters-plus status. The rankings points haven’t caught up yet, but they will. Davis Cup is dying a slow, painful, ugly death, but the best players in the world want to play for their country -- and they’re going to do it every four years at the Olympics.